Ethnographic Research

D

dazang

Hello fellow FreeBSD users! I have somewhat of an interesting project. I am a University student, and as a term project for my anthropology course I am conducting ethnographic research. This type of research is simply observation of a culture. I have chosen the open-source community as my chosen culture.

Firstly, I believe this project will allow me to better understand the ideals and values that the culture shares, as well as some of the points of contention within its ranks. The point of this project is simply observation and learning from that observation; not necessarily to come to any specific conclusion or to prove any hypothesis.

Along with observing behavior here in the forums and at local events, I am also posing the following questions here in the forum for those who would like to participate in my study. The questions are basic. If you do choose to participate, please be as honest and personal as you can be. This is as much about you as it will be about the larger community. Also, if you can think of any other questions that would be helpful for my research, please don't hesitate to share!

Thank you!

The questions:

  1. What drew you to the open source community?
  2. What operating system(s) do you use daily?
  3. What architecture is your favorite?
  4. Have you been a part of a development team for open-source software?
  5. Is there any part of the open-source mission that has it's downsides? If so, what?
  6. What types of projects do you see happening in open-source software in the next ten years?
  7. What other hobbies do you have? Please list them, and share stories if you like.
  8. What is your opinion of Microsoft? What is your opinion of licensed software in general?
  9. What is your favorite aspect to the open-source community?
 
1. Hacking a screen saver.
2. FreeBSD and Debian(GNU/Linux).
3. POWER/PowerPC
4. I'm not sure. You'll have to ask the others on this.
5. Uncertainty and limited resources; but, hey, that is for all things.
6. AI, accessibility
7. Bike riding and being annoying.
8. Microsoft is a company. I think you mean "proprietary" software. The problem is that those who cannot afford new hardware or software are pushed to the side. What remains is for someone to reverse engineer the programs et al until someone can use those programs again without the fear of cost.
9. The people.


Why is everyone else afraid to answer this thread? Believe me when I state that there are others whose names should be seen much more than mine on this board.

Was it wrong for me to answer this thread?
 
1. Learning, this goes best if you read good code.
2. Windows + FreeBSD
3. PowerPC, MIPS, m68K
4. Yes
5. You may see someone using what you did for things not intended, or modifying it in ways that make you cringe. But that would happen in other crafts also, it just hurts more if you are proud of what you did.
6. I would like to quote Arthur C. Clark on this.
7. Flying model planes, playing RPGs, swimming, budo.
8. Microsoft is a company I would not include in the "places I want to work at" list.
They are a global company and behave as one. I do not like the way they deal things, but being what they are they need to do it that way.
9. The folks are mostly a lot more helpfull than the non-open source counterparts.
 
1) I want to know how and why things work. With open-source I can just have a look at the code
2) FreeBSD, Windows 7, Solaris 8/9/10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3) 68000
4) No
5) It sometimes lacks direction
6) the desktop environment to end all desktop environments
7) VJ'ing in clubs, drinking, clubbing
8) They're a commercial company out to make money. I have no problems with closed-source, licensed, proprietary or otherwise software
9) everybody can chime in
 
  1. What drew you to the open source community?
    It was free, as in no money, but at the same time I didn't need to worry about the
  2. What operating system(s) do you use daily?
    FreeBSD, Windows
  3. What architecture is your favorite?
    By default: amd64
  4. Have you been a part of a development team for open-source software?
    Not really. I have submitted patches and PR but not more.
  5. Is there any part of the open-source mission that has it's downsides? If so, what?
    Advocacy. People who are religious about bashing everything that is not open-source.
  6. What types of projects do you see happening in open-source software in the next ten years?
    N/A
  7. What other hobbies do you have? Please list them, and share stories if you like.
    Sports in general. Road cycling in particular. Computers in general, electronics, DIY.
  8. What is your opinion of Microsoft? What is your opinion of licensed software in general?
    They do a great job at making it easy for people to use computers. Like Intel they have enabled a huge shift in computing, and they should be respected for that. On the other hand they dumb their systems down to an almost unbearable level. Unfortunately it is also very difficult to use them in a mixed environment since they seem to believe that their standard is the one to use, and that others need to be supported.
  9. What is your favorite aspect to the open-source community?
    The ability to use it as you see fit. I can make changes that the original programmers might not like, but its up to me. I can (ab)use my system in any creative way that I see fit.
 
1. I wasn't drawn to the OS community at all. I just wanted to try something other than Windows and Linux (that's what I used used before FreeBSD, like most here I guess) was the easiest to try.
2. FreeBSD, Mac OS X.
3. amd64
4. Nope.
5. Fanatism about everything that's not open source. You can take rms as an example ;)
6. DE's for touch screens getting pushed to desktop computers.
7. Numismatics, cycling and Japanese culture (language etc.).
8. It's a company, like many others. I neither hate them, nor love them. I use MS Office on OSX. I also happen to have Windows Phone smartphone, which I rather like and MS Arc mouse. Some of their products are really good, others (like Windows) not so much, but alternatives are non-existent and thanks to them, I guess, PCs are popular not only amongst geeks.
9. People are much more tech-oriented.
 
dazang said:
  1. What drew you to the open source community?
  2. What operating system(s) do you use daily?
  3. What architecture is your favorite?
  4. Have you been a part of a development team for open-source software?
  5. Is there any part of the open-source mission that has it's downsides? If so, what?
  6. What types of projects do you see happening in open-source software in the next ten years?
  7. What other hobbies do you have? Please list them, and share stories if you like.
  8. What is your opinion of Microsoft? What is your opinion of licensed software in general?
  9. What is your favorite aspect to the open-source community?
Click to expand...

1] I wasn't exactly drawn to the community, Around 95 I became aware of the community when I was about 8 or 9 years old and I was really interested in anything odd and anything that didn't fit my frame of reference regarding computers. In 97 I knackerd up my 95 install on a old Packard Bell Spectria and needed a alternative before my mum and dad killed me (and before I located my recovery disks) and hearing about linux so I asked my IT Teacher to download me a copy (I owe that guy alot), and he passed me a Debian CD and a copy of some generic learn NIX in your spare time book.

2] Daily, OSX, FreeBSD, Debian and Backtrack Linux distros, Server 2003, XP, Vista, and OS2 (yes it still works away in manufacturing) and VMS.

3] 32/64bit I use mostly use Intel and AMD systems.

4] Not exactly but I do write software for internal use and have contributed a few modules or fixes for various projects if I can fix a bug or add some functionality that's useful.

5]My answer is twofold -

a] The GPL, it's not a license for software it's a political manifesto and a rambling one at that. The sooner most of the fluff is cut out of that document the better, a tool is a tool and nothing more the GPL attempts to force a top down ideal on the whole community and it's not working and will harm the community as a whole.

b] Fan boys {read Fanatics}, Look I like FreeBSD, I like OSX, I like Windows, I like Android, and I like Linux. If I have something that is critical and has to stay up I will chose FreeBSD as in my mind it's stable and robust but if it can only use a windows system for it or a bit of software that is windows only I will do that rather than trying to shoe horn my ideal choice into the situation. Back to my Tool analogy, you chose the right one for the job, A Military term comes to mind, "If I am going to war tomorrow with 50 untrained men I will give them a AK47(simple, robust, easy to use), but if I a week to train them I will give them a M16(Complex, Needs maintenance, and a understanding of some of the underlying technology)", what it boils down to is "What do most people know?" in this world it's windows they use it at home and most places they have worked before so little training is needed, but if I have time to teach them I will show them Terminal commands and other utils. Just because I can use an know a system and I feel it fits the situation most users are not geeks or Experts in a given technology and it should be easy to use (hell pre 2k term User Friendly) and I shouldn't belittle there experience or choice because of my experience.

6] I see more focus on GUI's frankly most main stream (KDE, GNOME) are focusing on touch interfaces, I can also see a development of this on windows especially since MS is forcing metro onto the windows user breaking there years of built in knowledge and the first group to make a useable 3rd party interface could be onto a winner.

7] Reading, Writing, Fishing, Shooting, History, Camping, Knife making, History, Table top gaming (Warhammer 40K).

8] Tricky one, I haven't really got a answer to this one as I have a MSDN subscription for myself, and in work I don't deal with licensing but I have in the past and I would like to see a clear policy as the wording can be confusing at times. Example in a SBS license for 2003 I can only use IIS for internal use and on another I can use it for publicly served applications, both where the same version one service pack apart from the same supplier for the same customer. They need to make licenses clear to read without a law degree as it can be confusing at times.

9]I like the community the best, you can always find a home. Some communities are generalists, others focus on what you are interested in and you can make your self useful in some respect (I am security focused but have a interest in general admin work), and also the community will support it's own. You can make a great product or a fork and make it your own if your product or idea has merit it will build a community of its own and become successful which is a massive boon for the one man band developer or small team working with limited funds. And conversely if your idea has merit, but your code is lacking the community can build on it, and if your idea sucks you can learn from it and the community will give feedback.
 
I think it's only fair to mention that this poster also made the exact same request in the Debian, Gentoo, Ubuntu, and PC-BSD forums, since he obviously forgot to mention so himself.
 
I assumed he did when he said "Opens source community", but even if it is spammy, it's leading to a great number of insightful posts.
 
  1. What drew you to the open source community?
    Was a C/C++ software engineer for *NiXs, just came to know that a lot of it is open source...some 8-9 years ago.
  2. What operating system(s) do you use daily?
    Windows 7 and FreeBSD 8.2
  3. What architecture is your favorite?
    Please elaborate. x86 if you are talking of CPU's
  4. Have you been a part of a development team for open-source software?
    Mmm...Symbian counts?
  5. Is there any part of the open-source mission that has it's downsides? If so, what?
    Many...fragmented, lack of user/customer focus, poor documentation, lacking of proper packaging
  6. What types of projects do you see happening in open-source software in the next ten years?
    I think the FOSS trails the cutting edge development in propietary world. So no idea where it is going.
  7. What other hobbies do you have? Please list them, and share stories if you like.
    Travelling and photography.
  8. What is your opinion of Microsoft? What is your opinion of licensed software in general?
    Has produced some of the best and worst products in my living memory. Understands customer, albeit too greedy and exploits, but this is changing.Its corporate customers are the millstones around its neck.
    I think it is the corporate law suite culture that has given birth to this license culture. For example I'd like use FreeBSD on production boxes, but my bosses would like to be able to penalize someone if the server fails (doesn't matter if I plead that my devs can take care of such problems).
    Special case of GPL: Its not a license, but ideology at your face. GPL has no place in tech world, even less so in FOSS world.
  9. What is your favorite aspect to the open-source community?
    I can fine tune and customize my system...wait I can actually modify parts of it if I need :). What more can one ask for ?
 
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